Thursday, 31 July 2014

Probably the best live band I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). They were even brilliant on their recent comeback tour (and I normally avoid comebacks, like Gary Barlow avoids tax).
No other reason to post there other than they put a smile on my face. I hope RTFC keep touring. G

The next DTRA race is Saturday 9 August (not this weekend) at the Amman Valley Horse Track, Ammanford, South Wales. This half-mile paperclip is the biggest oval we race on in the UK. It's a cushion track, that throws up big roosts. The championship race is Saturday, but there's an extra non-championship round the next day.

Camping available Friday and Saturday. £5 or free to volunteers.
Saturday racing is from 2-8pm, then hanging out in the pits - hopefully watching a Skooter Farm film night on a big screen*
Sunday is 12-5pm. (Times approximate).

If you want to race, get your entry in before the end of Friday. Newcomers welcome.

If you'd like to volunteer to marshal (on either day), leave a comment or email us at dirt @ Sideburnmagazine.com. No experience necessary.

If you want to spectate, just turn up and support your local racetrack. G

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

'Ivan the Terrible' started life as a Bonneville America 270 degree crank motor, Mule frame, R-6 Yamaha USD forks, and lots of Titanium, aluminum tank and widened Champion seat. Mucho mods to the motor push power to 96 at the wheel. Beringer controls and a ceramic-coated exhaust give the low level bling-age. The silver Porsche paint and a red leather seat cover keep the bike within the James Dean Porsche Spyder theme. Note the Mobilgas Pegasus now sporting Mule ears. 'The bike took first place in the Customs class at the Quail gathering and on the way home we stopped to a shot with a 20' James Dean sign about 2 miles from the crash site that took his life decades ago.'

We like that Mule didn't bother changing his usual T-shirt and shorts outfit just because Quail demands it.
Hands in pockets is The Vintagent in his leather jacket painted by Maxwell Paternoster.

Marc Marquez's team are organising another Superprestigio, to follow January's. Brad Baker made a hell of an impression, but I hope they can get whoever is this year's number 1 (and it doesn't look like it's going to be Baker) over for this. We spoke to a bunch of top racers when we were at Springfield and they're dead keen. Here's the official blurb...

It’s now confirmed. Marc Márquez and the current No#1 Dirt Tracker in the World, Brad Baker, will compete next December 13th for the supremacy of the Sant Jordi Arena. Backed by Barcelona City Council and organised by RPM Racing and Moto Club Segre, the Sant Jordi Arena will live again in December one of the most exciting and thrilling duels of motorcycling.
Last January, the City of Barcelona lived a unique show in the Sant Jordi with a sensational oval soil track, the match between the # 1 World dirt tracker, American Brad Baker, and the youngest ever MotoGP champ, Catalan Marc Márquez. A heart breaking finale, unfinished Somehow, back in January, the fight for the #1 dirt tracker finished null-null, as Márquez fell following a contact with Baker, two laps before the end of the race, handing the victory to the US rider.
In front of 8.000 spectators, after shaking hands, Brad Baker and Marc Márquez agreed for a second edition of the Superprestigio Dirt Track with the aim to have another try of that unfinished Final. Over 20 riders from the World Road Racing Championship, and some of the Top American dirt trackers also invited
With five months to go 16 road racers have already confirmed their intention to take part in the Event: Tito Rabat (ESP, Moto 2), Bradley Smith (GBR, Moto GP), Álex Márquez (ESP, Moto 3), Scott Redding (GBR, Moto GP), Álex Rins (ESP, Moto 3), Mika Kallio (FIN, Moto 2), Álvaro Bautista (ESP, Moto GP), Johann Zarco (FRA, Moto 2), Jonas Folger (GER, Moto 2), Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA, Moto 2), Julián Simón (ESP, Moto 2), Kenny Noyes (USA, CEV Superbike) Marcel Schrotter (GER, Moto 2), Xavier Simeon (BEL, Moto 2), Niklas Ajo (FIN, Moto 3) and Enea Bastianini (ITA, Moto 3). Other confirmations are expected increasing the list of riders in the Superprestigio category (reserved to road Racing riders). More than 20 riders are expected.
Brad Baker will not be the only rider representing the US. These riders together with the best nationals in Enduro, MX and Supermotard will join the Open category. Tickets on sale from 25 Euros
Tickets will be on sale soon through www.rpmticket.com and www.atrapalo.com starting from 25 Euros Marc Márquez: “It was a great to compete against Brad Baker, #1 in the US, in the 1st edition of the Superprestigio Dirt Track. As I expected it was a magical event, full of light, skids and racing with the crowd so close was amazing. The crash was the only inconvenient of that great evening, so I am looking forward to racing again in the Sant Jordi arena, have fun.... and try to beat Brad!”. Brad Baker: “I am super excited to visit Barcelona again in December! I met so many great people when I was there in January and everyone made me feel like I was home. RPM Racing and everyone involved with them was top notch and I'm sure they will make the second edition of Superprestegio even greater than the first! It's a complete honour to be invited to Barcelona for a second time and I'm really looking forward to riding with Marc Marquez and all the other great GP riders again as well”.

Monday, 28 July 2014

Guy Martin won at the Southern 100, at the DTRA and Chopper class at Dirt Quake, then at Armoy this weekend. He's on fire.
This beautiful photo is from the Southern 100 meet held on the Isle of Man every July. I attended the race back in 2011 and it was fantastic. See my snaps here. G

Sunday, 27 July 2014

We have a few stragglers in the T-shirt department. To clear some shelf space we're going to include a Dirt Quake III tote bag (worth £5) and Dirt Quake rub-on sticker (£2.50) with every order for these last few shirts. There is a handful of each design. If the sizes aren't listed, they are sold out.

Sideburn x Iron & Resin Limp
Made for Dirt Quake USA, we had a few shipped back to the UK and sold most of them at Dirt Quake III. Lovely quality with extra touches like sewn-in label and hem label.
Medium, Large and XXL only.
Made for us by Iron & Resin in Ventura, California.

Slacker by Stevie Gee
Made to commemorate the Slacker project collaboration between Sideburn and Brit artist Stevie Gee that produced a custom Kawasaki Z200, Sideburn 15 cover and feature and London art show. Front and back print (back print shown above).
Medium and XXL only.
Grey only.

Beast
Possibly our most popular shirt design ever. Artwork by Adi Gilbert.
Only lady medium left.
Black.
This design might make a comeback in all sizes in 2015.

Saturday, 26 July 2014

Our friend Roger F in Ohio sent these photos through. Roger and his partner, Patty, took photos and Roger raced.

The Antique Motorcycle Club of America has a national meet every summer in Wauseon, Ohio at the Fulton County Fairgrounds. The meet's centerpiece is the swap meet and classic bike exhibitions, which go on all weekend, with emphasis on American machinery, culminating with a judged bike show on Sunday morning. To enter, the bike has to run too.

There are several acres of classic bikes and parts on display and for sale, with flat tankers from the teens to more modern early-'60s bikes, but the emphasis is on American street bikes from the first half of the 1900s. They have chapters outside of the USA too.

Of course every Midwest fairgrounds has a grandstand and horse track, and they run a vintage half-mile flat track on Friday each year. Where else could you see a full hand-shift class run, or a dozen board trackers circling the track, forming up for a flying start? Very cool! And they also have some celebrity racers run a match race too. This year, Jay Springsteen was lured out of retirement and raced against Geo Roeder on a Norton.

Friday, 25 July 2014

We have stocked up with stickers and patches.
Back in are Rollerball-style rub-on stickers in red (for the first time), black and white.

Both styles of Motorcycho patches (plus current and back issues of the original, lame-ass bikerzine)

And the perennial favourite Broke Bone patch (we might sell out of these quickly the way the DTRA riders have been slinging themselves around in the last few meetings).
See all these tasty, affordable offerings and many more at Sideburn stickers and patches.

Rye House is a track, North of London, that the DTRA regularly race at and rent for practices. To learn it has such history is great.

We race there on Sunday 21 September.

I find it interesting, that while US servicemen went back to California and set down the ground rules of what it is to be a motorcycle (and hot rod) rebel - rules still being mirrored by real and wannabe outlaws 70 years later - the British returned home and raced. Many of them raced on makeshift ovals on the latter years of the war.

UPDATE: SOLD OUT. THANKS
Found by our night-shift supervisor in the Sideburn warehouse (pictured below), this rare beast is the last in captivity.
Produced for Sideburn by A Piece of Chic in Lyon, France, the tyre track is printed on 100% silk.
They were sent to discerning customers all over the northern hemisphere.
£70 plus postage.

"What you don't see on this clip is that the Honda had to first be jump started off the VW Transporter cos the battery was knackered... Damn thing didn't idle properly either which meant repeat procedures everytime it cut out in the pits.Having only just got the wiring done Thursday night, we rock up with zero riding of bikes and even less throttle/clutch cable 'tuning'... The latter cable jamming would prove my undoing in heat#1 when it wouldn't engage on the start line...The Tiger was left to idle all day after that and the oil in the reservoir had the equivalent viscosity property of coffee...But that's what DQ is all about and we loved it."Daniel

Last weekend, the GNC series visited Gray's Harbor, Washington for a half-mile race. Our good friend and fellow Dirt Quake USA organiser, Thor Drake of See See Motorcycles went along...

I packed up the ol’ Purple Hog with the bare escentals; tent, sleeping bag and Polaroid camera. No plan in place, just a destination, 130 miles north of Portland to Grays Harbor Racetrack in Elma, Washington for the half-mile AMA GNC dirt track race. My little lady was on a separate trip with her family, coincidentally on the way. I met Tori in a logger bar about halfway to Elma. I roll up on my old leaky Harley, she jumps out of a car, we both load up on the Harley and hit the road. I wonder if this made any sense to the bar keep? The sun was shining and was about 85 degrees out, almost perfect conditions for a nice little jaunt up the coast. Leaving the house I had some sense to pack a leather coat knowing full well that in the Pacific North West the weather can change at a moment's notice. Exactly what it did about 20 miles away from the track. In an almost comedic way a black cloud wrapped its arms around the general vicinity of Grays Harbor, living up to its name apparently?!

As we made our way up the hill a slow mist coated us in a chilly blanket. Tori and I arrived at the turn off to the track, I saw some familiar faces headed the other direction. This does not bode well, I think to myself. Still holding on to some lick of hope we pulled into the parking lot. A guy in a golf cart rolled up and said, “Race cancelled.” Just to be sure, as though it was some surprise, I asked again. You mean to tell me the race is cancelled? “Yup”

Tori and I set up camp in the field next to the track. We cracked a cold one and strolled over to say Hi to group of old timers, Some you may recognise.They told us it was going to be dry in the morning and with any luck they will be racing by 1:30.

We woke up at the crack of 10 the next morning to the sound of the intercom followed by some unmistakable V-twin engines. A quick “pack em up” and we purchased our $35 general admission tickets. We watched some practice, the Pro Singles and the Big Twins bouncing around the banked corners. Sammy Halbert #7 throwing down the fastest lap.

A brief intermission gave me a chance to stop by the pits and say Hi to Brad Baker and Sammy. For whatever dumb reason I alway get super nervous in the pits, and this time was no exception. I was stumbling for words and spilling my drink all over myself while trying to take pictures.

The races started promptly at 1:30 The first race was the Pro Singles. Jarod Vanderkooi yaking the win. Behind him local nice guy, Davis Fisher, in 3rd. Ryan Wells. Davis always gets a little nervous when he has to talk on the intercom. Poor guy choked up pretty good but rode one hell of a great race.

The main event for the Pro Twins followed. Sammy was in pole position and jumped out to an early lead. Pacing the pack for the first half of the race. He was caught about mid-race by both Bryan Smith and Jared Mees. Smith led the race for the next 6 or so laps and was passed right at the end by Jared Mees. Sammy and Brad scrapped for 4th and 5th. The top riders all aboard the HD XR750s, with exception of Bryan on his Crosley Kawasaki. Man, I love flat track racing. Tori and I jumped back on the hog and split southbound for a warm shower and a home-cooked meal.
Thor Drake, Portland, 21 July 2014